Speakers & learners
Teaching, immersion, and intergenerational use.
Focus — Culture, Arts & Language — Language preservation
LANGUAGE PRESERVATION
IDEAS WE SUPPORT.
World Seed Fund supports people whose ideas improve the daily use of a language for the speakers, elders, and learners of the language.
Why this area
LANGUAGE PRESERVATION
IN CONTEXT.
A language survives in daily use, not in an archive. Ideas qualify when speakers, learners, and occasions for use are all part of the plan.
Scope of the area
WHAT THIS AREA
INCLUDES.
Illustrations of scope, not a fixed list. If your idea belongs here but is not described below, introduce it anyway.
Materials
Dictionaries, texts, media, and teaching resources.
Digital presence
Keyboards, fonts, translation, and online use.
Institutional use
Language in schools, services, and public life.
Criteria to qualify
WHAT A LANGUAGE PRESERVATION
IDEA MUST SHOW.
All five criteria apply. An idea does not need to be complete or proven — it needs to be specific enough that we can judge it, and grounded enough that a next step is possible.
A defined problem, in a defined place
We need to understand exactly who is affected, where, and how they cope today. General statements about a global challenge are not enough to qualify.
- Names the place, community, or system where the daily use of a language fall short.
- States the situation today in plain terms — learners retained, occasions of use, or materials in circulation.
- Explains what the speakers, elders, and learners of the language do now, and what it costs them.
Human insight behind the idea
The idea should come from knowledge of the situation — technical, scientific, operational, cultural, or lived — rather than from an assumption about it.
- Draws on direct knowledge of the daily use of a language in that place.
- Accounts for why earlier documentation and archive projects did not hold here.
- Was shaped with the speakers, elders, and learners of the language, not only for them.
A credible next step
There must be a specific thing that can be attempted next, at a scale that can be observed honestly, with a stated way of judging whether it worked.
- A defined pilot with a stated size — learners, speakers, hours of recording, or materials produced.
- A stated measure of success — learners retained, occasions of use, or materials in circulation.
- A timeframe within which the result can be judged honestly.
Value for people and place
The benefit should be meaningful to the community or system the idea serves, and describable in terms they would recognise.
- Improves continuity, identity, and access in one's own language for the speakers, elders, and learners of the language.
- The benefit is described in words the community itself would use.
- Does not shift cost, risk, or harm onto neighbouring people or systems.
A path to keep working
Ideas qualify when someone can plausibly own, operate, fund, and repair the result after the first phase of support ends.
- A named language body, school, or community organisation able to carry the work after the first phase.
- Running costs, materials, and skills obtainable near the work.
- Ownership, permission, or agreement that lets the work continue.
Evidence & boundaries
WHAT HELPS,
AND WHAT DOES NOT.
Evidence can be modest. A careful account of a small trial is worth more than a projection.
Evidence we look for
- Any observation, record, or measurement of the daily use of a language in that place.
- Costs, materials, or time recorded from a small trial, however modest.
- Notes, letters, or agreements from the speakers, elders, and learners of the language or the language body, school, or community organisation.
Usually outside this area
- Broad proposals about language preservation with no named place and no named people.
- Equipment or funding requests with no operator and no running cost.
- Work that transfers cost, risk, or harm to neighbouring people or systems.
Submit an idea
INTRODUCE YOUR
LANGUAGE PRESERVATION IDEA.
There is no application window and no required format. Answer these four questions in your own words and we will read them.
Who is affected, where, and how do they manage today?
What do you know about the daily use of a language that others working on it may not?
What could you attempt next, and how would you judge whether it worked?
Who continues the work afterwards, and what keeps it running?
Human potential is everywhere. Opportunity should be too.